- make sure you rinse the spool attachment mechanisms, they are often little metal clips that rust out and sometimes lock your spool to the reel

- rinse the line too

- remove the reel from the rod once in a while to rinse out the salt in the seat

Most Importantly...

follow the manufacturer's directions for maintenance.

juro

07-23-2001, 10:46 AM

Forgot my hose trick for saltwater anglers... (n/a for fresh)

run the hose over the reel in the positive direction to get the spool spinning like a waterwheel... this creates centrifugal force to shed water outward. With any good reel you can get it going fast enough to be shedding water FAST. I then occasionally reverse the water flow to slow it down, speed it up again, etc - to clean the spool and line out thoroughly in about a minute.

Pop the spool off and rinse out the inner workings, then run a little water into the hole where the spindle goes and force the spool on and off a couple times with water in it to force a little flushout of that and it's done.

People often give the reels a little soak after a long trip in their stripping baskets or sinks.

I like lithium grease for grease areas (gears, etc) and high quality reel oil for oil areas (handles, etc).

MarkDoogue

07-23-2001, 10:45 PM

Jeff, I have an Abel reel lube kit that I don't need if you would like it. It is a codura wallet with three aluminum viles of different lubricants strapped inside. My Ross has a sealed drag system so it's virtually maintenance free.

~Mark

Adrian

07-24-2001, 08:49 AM

The recommendation for cork drags is a light application of Neats foot oil. I didn't know what this was until I mentioned it to my wife one day. Horse owners use it to treat leather harnesses etc. It comes from boiled calves feet (apparently Neat is old anlglo saxon for calf). So if your looking for it, a trip to your local sadlery store should do the trick.